I have a player who currently plays an artificer in D&D 4e. He's also a huge guild wars 2 player, obviously plays an Engineer. I need help making his character for him. They will be starting at 3rd level but I would like to see some progression up to like level 12-15 or higher so I can point him in the right direction.
The main goal is to build a fully optimized master of mechanical mayhem. He loves to tinker with elixirs, explosives, and all aspect of hazardous gadgets. He really wants him to be able to control the battle field by deploying devices that can help defend an area. For example, turrets that can cause damage to foes in the area, or regenerate the health of nearby allies. If this is possible he would also like to find away to make them very mobile on and off the battle field. He also want to be able to provide the party with potions and enchanted weapons of great power. This character needs a wide array of utility and firepower. I'm sure if you have read this far you are expecting this... He says he needs a freaking flamethrower! His concept is solid but I want to be able to pull it off through the mechanics of the game for him using paizo material only. The Alchemist looks like the go to class but I also came across the Forgemaster archetype for Dwarven Clerics. If you're not familiar with it I will post a link for it below.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/dwarf/forgemaster-cleric-dwarf
If someone could help me bring my players character to life it would be greatly appreciated. I don't know how to pull these things off for him and I really don't want to let him down.
If the Engineer isn't a viable/accessible concept maybe his second idea would be.
Here is a link to the mesmer class/profession from GW2, I feel like this would be a lot easier to pull off with paizos material.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/mesmer/
Is this core only game? http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/louis-porter-jr-design/ma chinesmith
this is can get pretty close. Flame thrower I'm not sure how to go about; past like.. replicating spells with certain things
I tend to try to stay away from 3rd party material. I'm allowing anything published by paizo. I'm pretty stumped when it comes the flame thrower, currently in the same boat as you in regards to it.
The concept is not something directly supported as Golerion (Pathfinder's setting) tends to be more European medieval fantasy with a bit of colonial sprinkled on whereas Eberron is more of a magic-steampunk setting. However, there's several ways to make the concept work:
Forgemaster would probably do fine.
He could be a summoner and reflavor the summons and his eidolon to be clockwork creations.
You could let him take item creation feats as an alchemist. Honestly, he could be any spellcaster with item creation feats to make this work. Unlike 4e, Pathfinder's magic item system is rather flexible if the PC has the money for it. He could take Craft Wondrous Item, create a wondrous item that does burning hands X times per day, and BAM! He's got a flamethrower.
